Salinger to boost Russo’s gubernatorial campaign

Thursday, Nov. 6, 1997 | 10:41 a.m.

The man who helped shape the Camelot image of former President John F. Kennedy is hoping to work the same magic with Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Aaron Russo of Las Vegas.

Pierre Salinger, Kennedy's press secretary, first met Russo in April in Reno after the candidate requested his help. Salinger, having just formed his own public relations firm in Washington, D.C., took the title of press secretary to Russo in a handshake agreement.

Salinger said Wednesday at Russo's campaign headquarters across from UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center that he shares the candidate's distaste for federal government invasion of privacy.

Both men oppose a new law they say will allow the government to tap phones without a court order. They also oppose another new law they say requires employers to submit identification information from job applicants to the federal government.

"We are seeing the deterioration of our Constitution," Salinger said. "The fact that they're going to tap phones is totally ridiculous. The idea that you have to have an identification card just to work for a company is also totally ridiculous."

Russo and former interim UNLV President Kenny Guinn, also a Republican, are the only announced major party candidates for the 1998 gubernatorial race.

The sight of Salinger with a Republican candidate might appear odd to longtime fans of the Democratic Kennedy. But Salinger dropped out of the Democratic Party to become an independent about 20 years ago. In 1995, he coordinated media during the successful 1995 campaign of conservative French President Jacques Chirac.

Salinger will appear at a public rally for Russo at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Artemus Ham Hall at UNLV. Dr. Julian Whitaker, an alternative health care specialist, is also scheduled to speak. Russo, a Kennedy fan, said he has long admired Salinger.

"I always respected Pierre Salinger's wisdom," Russo said. "He is someone I felt I could trust. I respect someone who wants me to do nothing but tell the truth. Other (potential consultants) I met with told me I'd have to lie."

Even for those too young to remember Kennedy, Salinger ought to be a household name. He gained renewed notoriety last year with his claim that Navy gunners accidentally shot down TWA Flight 800 during missile tests, killing all 230 passengers.

Ironically, Cable News Network reported Wednesday that a man who co-authored an Internet report with Salinger accusing the Navy of a coverup conceded his actions were "reckless and a mistake." Salinger, however, stood by his assertion but refused to talk more about it.

"I have announced that I'm not going to speak about it at all until the FBI and NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) come up with a solution," he said. "I've been widely attacked by the FBI and the media. The FBI I can understand but (the attacks from) the press I don't understand.

"When I made my original statement the FBI and NTSB were at their highest point of looking at a missile (theory). Why would they attack me?"

Salinger, 72, was en route from Honolulu to Tokyo with Cabinet officials when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. He said he initially believed the Warren Commission conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.

"I'm now pretty much away from the idea that it was Oswald alone," he said without elaborating.

Salinger termed as a "total lie" the depiction in Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" that former President Lyndon Johnson may have been involved in the assassination plot. Salinger, who also served as Johnson's press secretary for four months, said the Texan liked Kennedy but "hated" his brother, former attorney general and senator Robert Kennedy.

But Salinger said new information about the assassination will be released in a few weeks pointing to the New Orleans Mafia. Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello, the late Mafia boss from that city, has long been included in theories about the killing.

When California Democrat Clair Engle died in 1964, Salinger took over his U.S. Senate seat for five months before losing an election to Republican George Murphy that November. Salinger also was about 10 feet away from Robert Kennedy when the latter was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 after winning California's Democratic presidential primary.

The last American candidate Salinger affiliated with was Democrat George McGovern, who was trounced by then President Richard Nixon in 1972 during his re-election bid. Salinger eventually worked for ABC-TV as its Paris correspondent, and still maintains an apartment in that city.

Salinger said he dropped out of the Democratic Party and became an independent to maintain high ethical standards as a journalist. After leaving the network, he joined a large Washington, D.C., public relations firm but maintained his independence from party affiliation.

A frequent visitor to Nevada, Salinger married his first wife in Reno in 1947, and accompanied John Kennedy on his 1960 campaign stop in Las Vegas. He also was a guest of Gov. Bob Miller in 1995.